4/2/2020 football Edit

Valparaiso DE Cooper Jones commits to Indiana

Taylor Lehman • TheHoosier

Staff

Valparaiso defensive end Cooper Jones announced his commitment to Indiana on Thursday night.

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Valparaiso defensive end Cooper Jones has remained quiet throughout the majority of his recruitment, but he broke the silence Thursday night by announcing his commitment to Indiana via Twitter.

The Indiana defensive line class for the 2021 cycle is packed tightly with high-tier prospects, including the state's No. 7 prospect and current Indiana commitment Rodney McGraw. With the Hoosiers' class expected to be small in size, landing the commitments of some of those linemen early in the cycle was crucial on both ends, both for Indiana and for the recruits who want to play for Tom Allen, Kane Wommack and Kevin Peoples at Indiana.

The No. 6 prospect in the state and the No. 20 defensive end nationally, Jones offers quite a bit of size, at 6-foot-6, 245 pounds, and had offers form Ohio State, Michigan and Purdue and was receiving interest from Notre Dame and others. His father, Eric Jones, played at Notre Dame in the 1990s.

Former defensive line coach Mark Hagen, in tandem with Allen, worked the state hard before he left for Texas, and when Peoples took his place in 2020, he immediately got to work on the in-state class, with Jones being the toughest nut to crack. Only recently did he begin warming up to Indiana.

As a junior at Valparaiso, Jones recorded 56 tackles, 5.0 TFLs, 6.0 sacks, two forced fumbles, two fumbles recovered and two blocked kicks in 14 games, as Valparaiso went 13-1, losing to New Palestine and Indiana walk-on running back commit Charlie Spegal in the Class 5A state title game.

McGraw and Jones now represent the only two commitments to Indiana's 2021 class, as the Hoosiers are starting strongly within the state, during what new tight ends coach Kevin Wright, who spent the better part of two decades coaching at the high school level in Indiana, said was one of the best classes he's seen in 20 years.